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Natural resource consumption in rail transport: A note analysing two Finnish railway lines
Transportation Research Part D 11 (2006) 227–232 www.elsevier.com/locate/trd
Notes and comments
Natural resource consumption in rail transport: A note analysing two Finnish railway lines Leena Vihermaa a, Michael Lettenmeier a, Arto Saari
b,*
a
b
Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Kotkankatu 9, FIN-00510 Helsinki, Finland Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Laboratory of Construction Economics and Management, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 2100, FIN-02015 TKK, Finland
Abstract The eco-efficiency of railway transport is calculated using the Material Input Per Service-unit (MIPS) indicator. Two case railway lines are analysed; a single-track line and a double-track line. The results show that the railway infrastructure is the most significant factor in the consumption of abiotic materials, even at a high traffic density. The impact of the rolling stock was higher on water and air consumption. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Eco-efficiency; Railway; Transport; Life cycle; Natural resource consumption
1. Introduction The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy has developed the Material Input Per Service-unit (MIPS) indicator to measure the material consumption of products and services in relation to the service they offer. This indicator provides a connection to nature conservation (relocated earth masses and their origins) and water budgets, including flood prevention (the impact of the infrastructure and electricity production on the flow of water). Yet the MIPS-method is related to greenhouse gas emissions in the environmental category of air. Here the method is applied to a part of the Finnish rail system. Traditionally, studies on the environmental effects of transport have concentrated on either the emissions or on the noise problem. The material intensity of transport has not been studied in detail in Finland and there is only limited work abroad. Here, the MIPS-method was applied to determine the natural resource consumption of railway transport in Finland and to investigate which factors are significant in the formation of these MIPS-values. Finland has only one rail operator, VR Limited. Its network comprises 5850 km of railway lines, of which 507 km have two or more tracks. Over 40% of railway network is electrified and over 70% of the rail traffic is
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 9 451 3747; fax: +358 9 4513758. E-mail address: arto.saari@tkk.fi (A. Saari).
1361-9209/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.trd.2006.02.002
228
L. Vihermaa et al. / Transportation Research Part D 11 (2006) 227–232
Table 1 Composition of different categories in which MIPS-values are calculated Category
Type of material included
Abiotic raw materials Biotic raw materials Earth movements Water Air
Ore, sand, rock, fossil fuels, overburden Biomass of cultivated plants (agricultural areas), biomass of natural plants and animals (non-cultivated areas) Earth removals and/or erosion in agricultural and forestry areas Water used in processes and water conducted away by impermeable or partly impermeable surface and dams Air used in combustion and physiochemical reactions (mechanically moved air in e.g., air conditioning, ventilation and compressors is not included)
Source: Ritthoff et al. (2002).
handled by electric trains. The maximum speed is 200 km/h for passenger and 120 km/h for freight traffic (Finnish Railway Administration, 2003a,b). Physically, about a quarter of the country’s domestic freight transport is handled by rail, while the share in the European Union is around 13%. The volume of rail freight in Finland was 41.7 million tons in 2001. The railways account for only about 5% of total passenger-kilometres but their share of public transport journeys is about a quarter. The figure for public transport journeys over 75 km is around 60% (Finnish Rail Administration, 2001). 2. Materials and methods The material and energy consumption i.e., material input (MI) of products and services throughout their whole life-cycle are considered in the MIPS-value. The MI-value also includes materials including those overexploited from the mining of raw materials and materials consumed in energy production not included in the final product. The material input is divided by the service-unit (S) that measures the benefits obtained from the use of the product (Eq. (1)) and is case-specific to each product. MIPS ¼ MI=S
ð1Þ
MIPS-values are calculated for abiotic raw materials, biotic raw materials, earth movements in agriculture and forestry water, and air (Table 1). MIPS defines the eco-efficiency as the sum of the services offered divided by the sum of the materials consumed from cradle to grave (Schmidt-Bleek, 1993). Eco-efficiency can be improved by substituting raw materials, increasing durability, or optimising the use of the products (Autio and Lettenmeier, 2002)1. The MI-factors of materials and fuels used here are defined by Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (2003). In addition to these, the MI-factors for bitumen and peat were taken from Autio and Lettenmeier (2002), wind energy from Hacker (2003), water-power from Nikula (2005), gas and nuclear energy from Ritthoff et al. (2002), buildings from Sinivuori and Saari (2006), and gravel, macadam, sand, district heating, and electricity from Vihermaa (2005). Biotic resources and earth movement in agriculture and forestry were excluded. Both material composition and energy consumption data on the Ed passenger carriage (a double-deck type of carriage with seating for 113 passengers) are used to calculate the material input of the rolling stock. The maximum speed of the carriage is 200 km/h. The estimated service life of the Ed carriage is 40 years, which corresponds to 14 million kilometres of service. The main construction materials include aluminium (33%), carbon steel (29%), and plastics (13%) (Rejlers, 1999). As the contribution of the materials of the carriages to the final MIPS-values is very small, the materials for lighter freight carriages are estimated. In the case of railway infrastructure, the material consumption was determined separately for single and double-track lines. Case line 1 was a single-track line 184 km long between Kouvola and Pieksa¨ma¨ki, and Case line 2 was a double-track line 63 km long between Kerava and Lahti. Case line 2 was under construction during the study. The infrastructure is studied using different approaches. Firstly, the material consumption at the construction stage per railway metre is calculated for different construction types found on typical gross sections of 1
For details on MIPS calculation in general see Ritthoff et al. (2002).
L. Vihermaa et al. / Transportation Research Part D 11 (2006) 227–232
229
Case lines 1 and 2. Secondly, the actual data on the resource consumption during construction is used to calculate the life-cycle-wide resource consumption for Case lines 1 and 2. The service life is presumed to be 100 years. The transportation of passengers or goods is the basic service provided by railway traffic. The concept of service could be developed further to include the speed of travel or the possibility to use a power cut during the journey, but these additional features were outside our interest. Therefore, passenger kilometres and ton kilometres are selected as the service–units in the MIPS calculation. As both passenger and freight traffic use the railway infrastructure, there is a need to allocate the material input of the infrastructure to these forms of transport. This was done based on, gross ton kilometres, train kilometres, axle kilometres, and carriage kilometres. Abiotic MIPS
Abiotic MIPS 4,000
20,000
3,770
18,300 3,000 g / ton-km
g / passenger-km
15,000
10,000
5,000
4,000
2,000 1,280 1,000
838 654
1,860
300
429
60
166
203 0
0 50,000
500,000
500,000
5,000,000
passenger journeys / year
3,000,000
Water MIPS
Water MIPS 100,000
1,500,000 net ton km / year
25,000
94,700
20,300 20,000
60,000
g / ton-km
g / passenger-km
80,000
49,700
40,000 20,000
11,100 10,000
7,770 4,690
5,000
10,900 6,370
15,000
4,630 3,100
1,460 1,910
0
0 50,000
500,000 5,000,000 passenger journeys / year
500,000
3,000,000
Air MIPS
Air MIPS 200
1,500,000 net tons / year
60
188
150 128
g / ton-km
g / passenger-km
49
100
50
30
40
37 29 24
21
23
20
36 13
14 0
0 50,000
500,000 passenger journeys / year Case line 1
Case line 2
5,000,000
500,000
1,500,000
3,000,000
net tons / year Case line 1
Case line 2
Fig. 1. MIPS-values of passenger and freight traffic on different traffic density levels. Basis of allocation is gross ton kilometres.
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L. Vihermaa et al. / Transportation Research Part D 11 (2006) 227–232
The intensity of the infrastructure use is of central importance in the formation of MIPS-values. Therefore, MIPS calculations were tested using three different traffic density levels. 3. Results The most important factors in the formation of the abiotic material input are the earth works under the railway line. Railway yards, depots, workshops, and train factories made no significant contribution. Relocated rainwater is the most important factor in the water category and in the air category (mainly combusted oxygen), the energy consumption of the rolling stock is most significant. Additionally, depots, workshops, and factories are significant. Regarding the Case line 2, earth works and the surface structure are also relevant with regard to air consumption. There are large differences in the MIPS-values depending on the traffic density level (Fig. 1). The MIPSvalues for air and water consumption are more influenced by the energy consumption of the rolling stock than are abiotic MIPS-values (Fig. 2). The share of the rolling stock is found to increase with the traffic density. The MIPS-values for air consumption could be decreased by changing the energy production method. By completely switching the current mix of electricity to wind power, the air MIPS-values of the rolling stock could be decreased by a factor of 40. The selected allocation method greatly influences the results (Table 2). 1.5 million passenger journeys p.a.
100%
80%
80%
Contribution of MIPS
Contribution of MIPS
0.5 million passenger journeys p.a.
100%
60% 40% 20% 0%
60% 40% 20% 0%
Abiotic resources infrastructure
Water
Air
rolling stock
Abiotic resources
Water
infrastructure
Air
rolling stock
Fig. 2. The contributions of infrastructure and the rolling stock to the MIPS-values of Case line 2.
Table 2 The influence of the allocation method on the MIPS-values of two case railway lines Allocation
ABIOTIC MIPS
WATER MIPS
AIR MIPS
Case line 1
Case line 2
Case line 1
Case line 2
Case line 1
Case line 2
Passenger traffic Gross-ton-km Train-km Axle-km Carriage-km
g/passenger-km 429 817 424 352
203 383 201 167
g/passenger-km 6370 11 000 6310 5460
1910 2810 1900 1730
g/passenger-km 30 39 30 28
14 15 14 13
Freight traffic Gross-ton-km Train-km Axle-km Carriage-km
g/ton-km 300 171 302 326
654 354 658 713
g/ton-km 4690 3160 4710 4990
4630 3130 4650 4930
g/ton-km 24 21 25 25
23 21 23 24
Case line 1: 500 000 passenger journeys per year and 1.5 million net tons per year. Case line 2: 5 million passenger journeys per year and 3 million net tons per year.
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231
4. Conclusions The preliminary abiotic MIPS-values of the Finnish passenger transport system calculated in the Factor X project by Autio and Lettenmeier (2002) of 181 g abiotic raw materials/passenger-km are considerably lower than the values we obtain. The Factor X project only considered the surface layer of the railway and the electrification structures. The material intensive earth works for example were not included. This, combined with the recalculated MI-factor for electricity, explains the difference. The values estimated here for the operation of the freight rolling stock, excluding infrastructure (31 g abiotic raw materials, 1500 g water, and 18 g air), remain lower than the corresponding values calculated by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (2003) for German electric train freight traffic (83 g, 4400 g and, 29 g, respectively). The difference between the Finnish and the German values is mainly due to the lower MI-factor for the electricity in Finland. The values obtained by Gers et al. (1997) for the Inter City Express train (ICE) (696 g of abiotic raw materials, 6704 g of water, and 43.9 g of air per passenger-km) and the MSB Transrapid monorail (355 g of abiotic resources, 4947 g of water, and 35.3 g of air per passengerkm) at a speed of 250 km/h, both of them containing also material inputs for infrastructure, are within the range of our results. Some uncertainty remains. For Case line 1, it was impossible to find out exactly what fraction of the materials came from the construction site as the railway line was build in the late 19th century. In addition, information regarding some minor parts such as tunnels had to be adopted from other railway lines. Case line 2 is still under construction and, therefore, the parameters change in the future, although the earth works, the most significant in the abiotic category, are far advanced. Thus, any changes still to take place are likely to be small. The infrastructure allocation method can influenced the results and care is needed in its selection to maintain comparability between different forms of transport. Axle kilometres may be a confusing basis for the allocation because carriages may have 2 or 4 axles. Therefore, other allocation methods could be used. The weight of the traffic might be considered. The thickness of the under structure is partly defined by the weight, as heavy traffic causes vibration. There are speed limits, but the level of vibration could be decreased by improving the under structure (Tuominen, 2004). This would increase the material intensity. On the other hand, the rail capacity is limited, which restricts the amount of traffic. Therefore, the infrastructure could be allocated based on train or carriage kilometres. An infrastructure allocation based on train kilometres could lead to a conclusion of freight traffic utilising the rail network less than passenger traffic. In reality, more freight than passenger carriages use the network because freight trains tend to be longer. The construction of new railway routes is material-intensive. The resource consumption during use remains relatively low in terms of energy use and materials. For optimal resource consumption by rail transport, it is desirable to develop the existing railway network by increasing the traffic on less utilised railway lines and by improving lines that have a low capacity in relation to their potential use. For example, the construction of passing tracks and automatic train protection mechanisms can increase the capacity of traffic with relatively small material inputs. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the Finnish Rail Administration, the Finnish Civil Aviation Administration, the Finnish Maritime Administration, the Finnish Road Administration, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Transport and Communication, and Finnish Railways who sponsored the project. The authors are grateful to the steering group of the FIN-MIPS Transport Project, especially to Arto Hovi from the Finnish Rail Administration and to Otto Lehtipuu from the Finnish Railways for their collaboration. References Autio, S., Lettenmeier, M., 2002. Ekotehokkuus. Business as Future. Yrityksen ekoteho-opas (Eco-Efficiency. Business as Future. An Eco-Efficiency Guide for Companies). Dipoli-reports, Helsinki University of Technology, Lifelong Learning Center Dipoli, Espoo (in Finnish).
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Finnish Rail Administration, 2001. Environmental Report 2001. Finnish Rail Administration, Helsinki. Finnish Railway Administration, 2003a. Suomen rautatietilasto 2003 (Finnish Railway Statistics 2003). Finnish Rail Administration, Helsinki (in Finnish). Finnish Railway Administration, 2003b. The Network Statement, Finnish Rail Administration, Helsinki. Gers, V., Hu¨bner, H., Otto, P., Stiller, H., 1997. Zur Ressourcenproduktivita¨t von spurgefu¨rten Hochgeschwindikeitssystemen: Ein Vergleich von ICE und Transrapid. (On the Resource Productivity of High-Speed Rail Transport Systems: A Comparison of the ICE Train and the Transrapid Monorail.) Wuppertal Papers Nr. 75. Available from: (in German). Hacker, J., 2003. Bestimmung des lebenszyklusweiten Naturverbrauches fu¨r die Elektrizita¨tsproduktion in den La¨ndern der Europa¨ischen Union. (Calculation of the Life-Cycle Wide Resource Consumption for the Production of Electric Power in the Member States of the European Union.) Diplomarbeit. Technische Universita¨t Wien. Fakulta¨t fu¨r Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Wien (in German). Nikula, J., 2005. Suomessa vesivoimalla tuotetun sa¨hko¨energian MIPS-ka¨sitteen mukainen materiaali-intensiteetti (The Material Intensity of Finnish Hydropower According to the MIPS-Concept). Ympa¨risto¨strategioiden ja teknologian arvioinnin erikoistyo¨, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo (in Finnish). Rejlers, Oy, 1999. Talgo-Transtech Oy-Ed-vaunun ympa¨risto¨seloste (Environmental Statement of the Ed-Carriage). Mikkeli (in Finnish). Ritthoff, M., Rohn, H., Liedtke, C., 2002. Calculating MIPS–Resource productivity of products and services. Wuppertal Spezial 27e. Available from: . Schmidt-Bleek, F., 1993. Wieviel Umwelt braucht der Mensch. MIPS. Das Maß fu¨r o¨kologisches Wirtschaften.. Birkha¨user Verlag, Berlin. In English: Schmidt-Bleek, F., 1993. The Fossil Makers – Factor 10 and more. Available from: . Sinivuori, P., Saari, A., 2006. MIPS analysis of natural resource consumption in two university buildings. Building and Environment 41 (5), 657–668. Tuominen, M., 2004. Rautatieinfrastruktuurin elinkaarikustannukset (Life-Cycle Costs of Railway Infrastructure). Ratahallintokeskus, Kunnossapitoyksikko¨. Ratahallintokeskuksen julkaisuja A 3/2004, Helsinki (in Finnish). Vihermaa, L., 2005. Suomen raideliikenteen ekotehokkuus MIPS-laskentaa hyo¨dynta¨en (The Eco-Efficiency of the Finnish Railway Traffic Using the MIPS Method). Master’s Thesis, Faculty of Biosciences, University of Helsinki (in Finnish). Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, 2003. Material intensity of materials, fuels, transport services. Version 2, 28.10.2003. Available from: .
Notes and comments
Natural resource consumption in rail transport: A note analysing two Finnish railway lines Leena Vihermaa a, Michael Lettenmeier a, Arto Saari
b,*
a
b
Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Kotkankatu 9, FIN-00510 Helsinki, Finland Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Laboratory of Construction Economics and Management, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 2100, FIN-02015 TKK, Finland
Abstract The eco-efficiency of railway transport is calculated using the Material Input Per Service-unit (MIPS) indicator. Two case railway lines are analysed; a single-track line and a double-track line. The results show that the railway infrastructure is the most significant factor in the consumption of abiotic materials, even at a high traffic density. The impact of the rolling stock was higher on water and air consumption. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Eco-efficiency; Railway; Transport; Life cycle; Natural resource consumption
1. Introduction The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy has developed the Material Input Per Service-unit (MIPS) indicator to measure the material consumption of products and services in relation to the service they offer. This indicator provides a connection to nature conservation (relocated earth masses and their origins) and water budgets, including flood prevention (the impact of the infrastructure and electricity production on the flow of water). Yet the MIPS-method is related to greenhouse gas emissions in the environmental category of air. Here the method is applied to a part of the Finnish rail system. Traditionally, studies on the environmental effects of transport have concentrated on either the emissions or on the noise problem. The material intensity of transport has not been studied in detail in Finland and there is only limited work abroad. Here, the MIPS-method was applied to determine the natural resource consumption of railway transport in Finland and to investigate which factors are significant in the formation of these MIPS-values. Finland has only one rail operator, VR Limited. Its network comprises 5850 km of railway lines, of which 507 km have two or more tracks. Over 40% of railway network is electrified and over 70% of the rail traffic is
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 9 451 3747; fax: +358 9 4513758. E-mail address: arto.saari@tkk.fi (A. Saari).
1361-9209/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.trd.2006.02.002
228
L. Vihermaa et al. / Transportation Research Part D 11 (2006) 227–232
Table 1 Composition of different categories in which MIPS-values are calculated Category
Type of material included
Abiotic raw materials Biotic raw materials Earth movements Water Air
Ore, sand, rock, fossil fuels, overburden Biomass of cultivated plants (agricultural areas), biomass of natural plants and animals (non-cultivated areas) Earth removals and/or erosion in agricultural and forestry areas Water used in processes and water conducted away by impermeable or partly impermeable surface and dams Air used in combustion and physiochemical reactions (mechanically moved air in e.g., air conditioning, ventilation and compressors is not included)
Source: Ritthoff et al. (2002).
handled by electric trains. The maximum speed is 200 km/h for passenger and 120 km/h for freight traffic (Finnish Railway Administration, 2003a,b). Physically, about a quarter of the country’s domestic freight transport is handled by rail, while the share in the European Union is around 13%. The volume of rail freight in Finland was 41.7 million tons in 2001. The railways account for only about 5% of total passenger-kilometres but their share of public transport journeys is about a quarter. The figure for public transport journeys over 75 km is around 60% (Finnish Rail Administration, 2001). 2. Materials and methods The material and energy consumption i.e., material input (MI) of products and services throughout their whole life-cycle are considered in the MIPS-value. The MI-value also includes materials including those overexploited from the mining of raw materials and materials consumed in energy production not included in the final product. The material input is divided by the service-unit (S) that measures the benefits obtained from the use of the product (Eq. (1)) and is case-specific to each product. MIPS ¼ MI=S
ð1Þ
MIPS-values are calculated for abiotic raw materials, biotic raw materials, earth movements in agriculture and forestry water, and air (Table 1). MIPS defines the eco-efficiency as the sum of the services offered divided by the sum of the materials consumed from cradle to grave (Schmidt-Bleek, 1993). Eco-efficiency can be improved by substituting raw materials, increasing durability, or optimising the use of the products (Autio and Lettenmeier, 2002)1. The MI-factors of materials and fuels used here are defined by Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (2003). In addition to these, the MI-factors for bitumen and peat were taken from Autio and Lettenmeier (2002), wind energy from Hacker (2003), water-power from Nikula (2005), gas and nuclear energy from Ritthoff et al. (2002), buildings from Sinivuori and Saari (2006), and gravel, macadam, sand, district heating, and electricity from Vihermaa (2005). Biotic resources and earth movement in agriculture and forestry were excluded. Both material composition and energy consumption data on the Ed passenger carriage (a double-deck type of carriage with seating for 113 passengers) are used to calculate the material input of the rolling stock. The maximum speed of the carriage is 200 km/h. The estimated service life of the Ed carriage is 40 years, which corresponds to 14 million kilometres of service. The main construction materials include aluminium (33%), carbon steel (29%), and plastics (13%) (Rejlers, 1999). As the contribution of the materials of the carriages to the final MIPS-values is very small, the materials for lighter freight carriages are estimated. In the case of railway infrastructure, the material consumption was determined separately for single and double-track lines. Case line 1 was a single-track line 184 km long between Kouvola and Pieksa¨ma¨ki, and Case line 2 was a double-track line 63 km long between Kerava and Lahti. Case line 2 was under construction during the study. The infrastructure is studied using different approaches. Firstly, the material consumption at the construction stage per railway metre is calculated for different construction types found on typical gross sections of 1
For details on MIPS calculation in general see Ritthoff et al. (2002).
L. Vihermaa et al. / Transportation Research Part D 11 (2006) 227–232
229
Case lines 1 and 2. Secondly, the actual data on the resource consumption during construction is used to calculate the life-cycle-wide resource consumption for Case lines 1 and 2. The service life is presumed to be 100 years. The transportation of passengers or goods is the basic service provided by railway traffic. The concept of service could be developed further to include the speed of travel or the possibility to use a power cut during the journey, but these additional features were outside our interest. Therefore, passenger kilometres and ton kilometres are selected as the service–units in the MIPS calculation. As both passenger and freight traffic use the railway infrastructure, there is a need to allocate the material input of the infrastructure to these forms of transport. This was done based on, gross ton kilometres, train kilometres, axle kilometres, and carriage kilometres. Abiotic MIPS
Abiotic MIPS 4,000
20,000
3,770
18,300 3,000 g / ton-km
g / passenger-km
15,000
10,000
5,000
4,000
2,000 1,280 1,000
838 654
1,860
300
429
60
166
203 0
0 50,000
500,000
500,000
5,000,000
passenger journeys / year
3,000,000
Water MIPS
Water MIPS 100,000
1,500,000 net ton km / year
25,000
94,700
20,300 20,000
60,000
g / ton-km
g / passenger-km
80,000
49,700
40,000 20,000
11,100 10,000
7,770 4,690
5,000
10,900 6,370
15,000
4,630 3,100
1,460 1,910
0
0 50,000
500,000 5,000,000 passenger journeys / year
500,000
3,000,000
Air MIPS
Air MIPS 200
1,500,000 net tons / year
60
188
150 128
g / ton-km
g / passenger-km
49
100
50
30
40
37 29 24
21
23
20
36 13
14 0
0 50,000
500,000 passenger journeys / year Case line 1
Case line 2
5,000,000
500,000
1,500,000
3,000,000
net tons / year Case line 1
Case line 2
Fig. 1. MIPS-values of passenger and freight traffic on different traffic density levels. Basis of allocation is gross ton kilometres.
230
L. Vihermaa et al. / Transportation Research Part D 11 (2006) 227–232
The intensity of the infrastructure use is of central importance in the formation of MIPS-values. Therefore, MIPS calculations were tested using three different traffic density levels. 3. Results The most important factors in the formation of the abiotic material input are the earth works under the railway line. Railway yards, depots, workshops, and train factories made no significant contribution. Relocated rainwater is the most important factor in the water category and in the air category (mainly combusted oxygen), the energy consumption of the rolling stock is most significant. Additionally, depots, workshops, and factories are significant. Regarding the Case line 2, earth works and the surface structure are also relevant with regard to air consumption. There are large differences in the MIPS-values depending on the traffic density level (Fig. 1). The MIPSvalues for air and water consumption are more influenced by the energy consumption of the rolling stock than are abiotic MIPS-values (Fig. 2). The share of the rolling stock is found to increase with the traffic density. The MIPS-values for air consumption could be decreased by changing the energy production method. By completely switching the current mix of electricity to wind power, the air MIPS-values of the rolling stock could be decreased by a factor of 40. The selected allocation method greatly influences the results (Table 2). 1.5 million passenger journeys p.a.
100%
80%
80%
Contribution of MIPS
Contribution of MIPS
0.5 million passenger journeys p.a.
100%
60% 40% 20% 0%
60% 40% 20% 0%
Abiotic resources infrastructure
Water
Air
rolling stock
Abiotic resources
Water
infrastructure
Air
rolling stock
Fig. 2. The contributions of infrastructure and the rolling stock to the MIPS-values of Case line 2.
Table 2 The influence of the allocation method on the MIPS-values of two case railway lines Allocation
ABIOTIC MIPS
WATER MIPS
AIR MIPS
Case line 1
Case line 2
Case line 1
Case line 2
Case line 1
Case line 2
Passenger traffic Gross-ton-km Train-km Axle-km Carriage-km
g/passenger-km 429 817 424 352
203 383 201 167
g/passenger-km 6370 11 000 6310 5460
1910 2810 1900 1730
g/passenger-km 30 39 30 28
14 15 14 13
Freight traffic Gross-ton-km Train-km Axle-km Carriage-km
g/ton-km 300 171 302 326
654 354 658 713
g/ton-km 4690 3160 4710 4990
4630 3130 4650 4930
g/ton-km 24 21 25 25
23 21 23 24
Case line 1: 500 000 passenger journeys per year and 1.5 million net tons per year. Case line 2: 5 million passenger journeys per year and 3 million net tons per year.
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4. Conclusions The preliminary abiotic MIPS-values of the Finnish passenger transport system calculated in the Factor X project by Autio and Lettenmeier (2002) of 181 g abiotic raw materials/passenger-km are considerably lower than the values we obtain. The Factor X project only considered the surface layer of the railway and the electrification structures. The material intensive earth works for example were not included. This, combined with the recalculated MI-factor for electricity, explains the difference. The values estimated here for the operation of the freight rolling stock, excluding infrastructure (31 g abiotic raw materials, 1500 g water, and 18 g air), remain lower than the corresponding values calculated by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (2003) for German electric train freight traffic (83 g, 4400 g and, 29 g, respectively). The difference between the Finnish and the German values is mainly due to the lower MI-factor for the electricity in Finland. The values obtained by Gers et al. (1997) for the Inter City Express train (ICE) (696 g of abiotic raw materials, 6704 g of water, and 43.9 g of air per passenger-km) and the MSB Transrapid monorail (355 g of abiotic resources, 4947 g of water, and 35.3 g of air per passengerkm) at a speed of 250 km/h, both of them containing also material inputs for infrastructure, are within the range of our results. Some uncertainty remains. For Case line 1, it was impossible to find out exactly what fraction of the materials came from the construction site as the railway line was build in the late 19th century. In addition, information regarding some minor parts such as tunnels had to be adopted from other railway lines. Case line 2 is still under construction and, therefore, the parameters change in the future, although the earth works, the most significant in the abiotic category, are far advanced. Thus, any changes still to take place are likely to be small. The infrastructure allocation method can influenced the results and care is needed in its selection to maintain comparability between different forms of transport. Axle kilometres may be a confusing basis for the allocation because carriages may have 2 or 4 axles. Therefore, other allocation methods could be used. The weight of the traffic might be considered. The thickness of the under structure is partly defined by the weight, as heavy traffic causes vibration. There are speed limits, but the level of vibration could be decreased by improving the under structure (Tuominen, 2004). This would increase the material intensity. On the other hand, the rail capacity is limited, which restricts the amount of traffic. Therefore, the infrastructure could be allocated based on train or carriage kilometres. An infrastructure allocation based on train kilometres could lead to a conclusion of freight traffic utilising the rail network less than passenger traffic. In reality, more freight than passenger carriages use the network because freight trains tend to be longer. The construction of new railway routes is material-intensive. The resource consumption during use remains relatively low in terms of energy use and materials. For optimal resource consumption by rail transport, it is desirable to develop the existing railway network by increasing the traffic on less utilised railway lines and by improving lines that have a low capacity in relation to their potential use. For example, the construction of passing tracks and automatic train protection mechanisms can increase the capacity of traffic with relatively small material inputs. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the Finnish Rail Administration, the Finnish Civil Aviation Administration, the Finnish Maritime Administration, the Finnish Road Administration, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Transport and Communication, and Finnish Railways who sponsored the project. The authors are grateful to the steering group of the FIN-MIPS Transport Project, especially to Arto Hovi from the Finnish Rail Administration and to Otto Lehtipuu from the Finnish Railways for their collaboration. References Autio, S., Lettenmeier, M., 2002. Ekotehokkuus. Business as Future. Yrityksen ekoteho-opas (Eco-Efficiency. Business as Future. An Eco-Efficiency Guide for Companies). Dipoli-reports, Helsinki University of Technology, Lifelong Learning Center Dipoli, Espoo (in Finnish).
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Finnish Rail Administration, 2001. Environmental Report 2001. Finnish Rail Administration, Helsinki. Finnish Railway Administration, 2003a. Suomen rautatietilasto 2003 (Finnish Railway Statistics 2003). Finnish Rail Administration, Helsinki (in Finnish). Finnish Railway Administration, 2003b. The Network Statement, Finnish Rail Administration, Helsinki. Gers, V., Hu¨bner, H., Otto, P., Stiller, H., 1997. Zur Ressourcenproduktivita¨t von spurgefu¨rten Hochgeschwindikeitssystemen: Ein Vergleich von ICE und Transrapid. (On the Resource Productivity of High-Speed Rail Transport Systems: A Comparison of the ICE Train and the Transrapid Monorail.) Wuppertal Papers Nr. 75. Available from: